Saturday night was going to be a revival meeting for the Penn State football team, the 107,818 in attendance at Beaver Stadium and the millions of Nittany Lions fans watching on television.

Penn State was on a five-game winning streak with a chance to beat ninth-ranked and unbeaten Ohio State and show the nation that no obstacles were too great for the program to overcome.

The emotion built inside the locker room as game time approached.

"We weren't calm," cornerback Stephon Morris said, "but everybody knew their role and knew what they had to do. Nobody was too hyped. It was cool."

But it didn't look that way once the game began.

The Lions dropped interceptions and passes and committed penalties and a terrible turnover, all of which led to a disappointing 35-23 loss.

The Penn State players all denied that they were too fired up by the White Out crowd, the implications or the opponent. But the Lions, including head coach Bill O'Brien, made too many mistakes to win.

"It was definitely one of the biggest games of our year," quarterback Matt McGloin said. "There were over 107,000 people here. It was definitely a big red circle on our calendar. We were ready to go and so were they.

"We felt great (before the game). We were excited."

Maybe too excited.

In the first six minutes, McGloin underthrew wide-open Allen Robinson, who dropped the pass at the Ohio State 35; safety Stephen Obeng-Agyapong dropped an interception with about 50 yards of open field in front of him; and Morris dropped another interception three snaps later.

Penn State easily could have had a 14-0 lead.

"We should have made those plays," linebacker Gerald Hodges said. "That could have turned the whole game around."

Then there were the nine penalties, tying a season high, for 85 yards. Two false starts helped halt second-quarter drives and a holding penalty on second-and-goal from the 3 forced the Lions to settle for a field goal in the third.

And a controversial defensive holding penalty on an Ohio State punt in the second quarter enabled the Buckeyes to keep the football and drive for a tying touchdown.

"The penalties hurt us," cornerback Adrian Amos said.

So did two other things. With the score 7-7 early in the third quarter, McGloin dropped back on third-and-13 from the Penn State 8 and tried to hit Alex Kenney down the middle. But his pass landed in the hands of linebacker Ryan Shazier, who returned it for an easy touchdown.

The Buckeyes never allowed McGloin to get comfortable in the pocket, showing many different looks and blitzing more frequently than they have all season.

Later in the third, with the Lions trailing 14-10, O'Brien called for a fake punt on fourth-and-9 from the Ohio State 43. Mike Hull was open, but Alex Butterworth threw a wobbly pass to Derek Day that was broken up.

Instead of being pinned deep in their territory, the Buckeyes used a short field to drive for a touchdown that made it 21-10. Ohio State coach Urban Meyer called it the turning point in the game, but O'Brien defended his call.

"I was trying to get something going for our players on offense," he said.

It was not a sterling call by O'Brien in his first big game as a head coach. The Lions and their coach were not at their best Saturday night before the first packed house of the season. Maybe it's no coincidence that they haven't won a White Out game since 2007.

"I don't think we were too jacked up," Robinson said. "I just think it was a lack of focus."